96 per cent of houses in Delhi yet to be occupied

Almost 25 per cent of houses constructed across the country for urban poor under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission are yet to be occupied by the beneficiaries. In the city, 96 per cent of these houses are unoccupied, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.

In a written reply, Union minister of state for housing and urban poverty alleviation Babul Supriyo said that 10 states — Maharashtra Gujarat, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka — accounted for 92 per cent of the total houses lying vacant. “Out of 13,92,589 houses sanctioned for urban poor under JNNURM, construction of 9,80,216 dwelling units has been completed, of which 2,37,546 houses (25 per cent) are still to be occupied by the beneficiaries,” he said.

Among the good performers in occupation of JNNURM houses are Tripura, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Assam, Manipur and Jharkhand.

Mr Supriyo stated that under JNNURM and Rajiv Awas Yojana, a total of 1,695 housing projects were sanctioned at a total cost of '40,536 crore, involving Central assistance of '21,101 crore for the construction of 13,92,589 houses.

JNNURM was brought to a close by March 31, 2014 by the earlier government and the Modi government has extended time for completion of housing projects.

Maharashtra topped the list with 52,966 of 1,23,963 houses still being vacant, followed by Gujarat (29,126 of 1,18,044 houses), Delhi (26,759 of 27,344 houses), Madhya Pradesh (26,004 of 33,081 houses), Andhra Pradesh (23,688 of 62,949 houses), Telangana (21,578 of 73,795 houses), Uttar Pradesh (14,890 of 61,169 houses), Chhattisgarh (8,875 of 18,662 houses) and Karnataka (7,157 of 42,879 houses).